"In my presentation I will share my personal learnings with two aspects of Product Management at XING:

Mainly I will talk about our approach to scaling mobile product management. Like many other digital companies started before 2010, XING’s approach to product management was strongly web-oriented and mobile had been treated as a by-product handled by a small silo of specialists. What we aim for today is a full-stack product thinking in which a product team not just owns the domain specific business logic and the web representation of their product, but also all other touchpoints and in particular mobile.

As a result we now build our native core apps as a distributed and collaborative effort of several teams. I will share my learnings from managing the change process of „unleashing mobile“ across XING and what it means for the product managers involved.

As a second topic I will dive deeper into one question which is closely connected to this distributed, collaborative approach: How to create the necessary alignment between autonomous teams?

I will present a framework for alignment which we call „Auftragsklärung“ (rough translation: „assignment clarification“ – I will explain why I prefer the German terminology). Auftragsklärung has helped to add a lot of clarity to the way we manage products and also be applied in other contexts such as start-ups or agency work."

30.
Scaling Mobile Product Management
• Managing a product across several platforms is the
only way to create relevant services for today’s users
• Accept and ideally embrace the additional complexity
this brings, get ready for active alignment
• New roles are challenging but it also is your chance to
grow as a Product Manager!
• Remember: You are doing it for your users

35.
Why I Use the German Word Auftragsklärung
All translations so far didn’t really convince me.
Revival of Prussian 19th century military theory in management:
“Auftragstaktik” (von Moltke)
Command & control
doesn’t scale in times of
uncertainty
Stating intentions to enable
autonomous action in
alignment with the overall
mission

36.
von Moltke Blank
„No battle plan
survives first contact
with the enemy.“
„No business plan
survives first contact
with customers.“
Outcomes are unpredictable: Do and adapt!

38.
Auftragsklärung
Structure for dialogue
among teams.
Asking the tricky
questions very early.
Less surprises and a clear
understanding of success.
Different from
Auftragstaktik, this is not
meant for top-down
leadership, but starts with
the people in charge.
CONTEXT
INTENT HIGHER INTENT
INPUT OUTPUT
OUTCOME
BOUNDARIES

39.
Auftragsklärung: Context
Common and shared
facts - including the
trigger(s) that lead to
this Auftragsklärung
What’s the situation?
What’s the complication?
CONTEXT
INTENT HIGHER INTENT
INPUT OUTPUT
OUTCOME
BOUNDARIES